Hard-knock politics mark beginning, end of Sachs-Bogdanoff showdown

November 2, 2012|By Kathleen Haughney, Tallahassee Bureau

With only a few days left until Election Day, the heavyweight battle between two high-profile female lawmakers for a state Senate seat has involved accusations about limousine rides on the public dime, ignoring the aftermath of the Holocaust, charges that one candiate practically committed a crime — and now, possibly, a lawsuit.

Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, and Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, were both elected to the Senate in 2010, but they were pitted against each other this year by the once-a-decade redistricting process. The new legislative district favors a Democrat and Bogdanoff nearly considered not running, but was persuaded by promises of party support.

The result has been one of the most expensive — spending may hit $10 million — and ugliest legislative races in the state. It reached a fever pitch this past week when Sachs accused Bogdanoff of using the Holocaust to scare elderly Jewish voters and also threatened legal action against the state party over a negative ad it has run against her.

"It's been nasty," Sachs acknowledged.

In the state Capitol and on the campaign trail, Bogdanoff is known as a tenacious legislator and campaigner who has focused on business, child care and gambling issues. Sachs is a staunch Democratic voice who helped build a coalition to stamp out GOP prison privatization plans and education initiatives that Democrats have labeled as anti-teacher.

Both are depicted as caricatures by political parties desperate to keep the seat.

For Republicans, a Bogdanoff win is likely to secure the party 27 seats in the Senate, or a two-thirds majority, meaning they can basically pass any piece of legislation without agreement from the Democrats. The state Democratic Party is determined to not let that happen. Both parties have poured money into the race; legislative leaders say the ultimate pricetag will total between $8 million and $10 million.

What the money has bought has not been pretty.

A group called "Progressives," which looks like a Democratic-leaning group but is run by GOP operatives, sent out mailers out accusing Sachs of supporting Republican policies – citing a past political contribution to George W. Bush -- in attempts to crack away at her base.

The state Republican Party has paid for a Bogdanoff ad that accuses Sachs of taking nearly $7,000 worth of rides on the taxpayer dime and not producing receipts for it. Last week, the party hired a limo displaying a caricature of Sachs to drive around the district.

Sachs said her attorney is sending a cease and desist letter to Republican officials Monday and will take further action if necessary to halt the ad. She said she initially filed lost receipt forms because there was a delay in getting the final bill from a car service for three years of rides to the airport. She said the company sent a van or SUV, not a limo.

The Republican Party of Florida also put out a mailer attacking Sachs for voting against funding for the Holocaust Museum and a Holocaust survivors' assistance program. Sachs, along with most Democrats in the Senate and House, had voted against the overall state budget – which included the Holocaust money – to protest its billion-dollar cuts to education and health care.

The mailer reads: "The mission of the Holocaust Museum and the Holocaust Survivors Assistance Program ought to be respected. It's too bad Maria Sachs doesn't think so."

That, Sachs said, crossed the line. Sachs held a press conference with other local lawmakers, her husband and his parents -- who are Holocaust survivors -- and demanded an apology. Her office was flooded with calls, she said, from older voters who were both confused and angry. The mailer was "repugnant," she said, and intended to "scare our survivors."

Bogdanoff said that the ad was a fair comment on Sachs' voting record and that attacks from Sachs have crossed the line in a far more personal way.

"My ads have been aggressive, but they've been about her record," she said.

The Florida Democratic Party put out its own mailer that has a mug shot of Bogdanoff and says "What Ellyn Bogdanoff did should be a crime." It lists "charges" of child abandonment, senior abuse and neglect, plus forcing pregnant women to have ultrasounds.

The "charges" are based on Bogdanoff's votes to approve a budget that cut school funding in 2011, supporting caps on wrongful death lawsuits against nursing homes and for a bill that required women seeking an abortion to first have an ultrasound.

"Telling people I should be charged with a crime, that's personal," Bogdanoff said.

The Democrats also aired an ad with threatening dark clouds and a photo of Bogdanoff. The text says that three things can increase property insurance rates: Hurricanes, sink holes and Ellyn Bogdanoff.

Both women say they aren't paying attention to polling, which shows them neck and neck heading into Tuesday. Both plan busy weekends with last-minute campaign stops, trying to reach every voter they can by Nov. 6.

"It's a ground war," Sachs said. "Person to person. Old time politics."